Dominic May (Governor in charge of Halls Project) introduced Riaz from his practice who would be in charge of the project day to day. 5 contractors had agreed to tender and 3 actually tendered. Those 3 tenders returned were all around the £100k mark but were close enough to allow confidence in the amount of the tenders. This is rather higher than had been anticipated so Dominic would be reviewing the specification to take it back to the essentials (demolition of the wall, installation of sliding partition reroofing, redo flooring) and including a 5% contingency together with amounts for Buildings Regulation consent, structural engineers fees, and an acoustics engineer (to ensure that sound didn’t leak between the halls when divided). His estimate for the funds required after this was c. £60k. He would then confirm with the builders which company could bring the project in for that price and was willing to do so with works to take place over the summer holidays. The reduced specification did mean that further fundraising was likely to be needed for new staging, storage and other things removed from the spec at this stage.

Pete S ran through the current position on the accounts. £15k had been set aside from the 2015 Fair for the Halls some of which had already been used for structural engineering fees. A similar amount would be expected from this year’s fair. There was then around £29k in the bank after agreed expenditures and the capital reserve were accounted for. It would be necessary to work out how much of this amount would be needed to fund any additional agreed expenditures and also for cash flow purposes for the key events of next term (eg Fireworks, the plays). Taking these items into account it is possible that as much as £20k could be used for the Halls from this amount. This would mean total funds available for the Hall of around £50k. This is around £10k short of the proposed budget. There was then discussion of whether the School could use some of their budget to fund the project in the short term until further fundraising could be undertaken in the new school year. Leon thought that despite the pressures on the budget this would be achievable if the amount was relatively small and if CF could then repay that money when funds were available. There was discussion of whether the project should be put off till summer 2017 but it was agreed that given we were so close it was better to go ahead if at all possible. The project spec would need to be around £60k and not more for this to be realistic. There was then discussion of some potential Halls specific fundraising initiatives – an inaugural quiz for instance in September. It was agreed that we wouldn’t try a MUGA style request for funds.

Library – Nathalie reported back on the launch of the Pickled Pepper wish list book donation scheme. The new bookplate stamp for donations was shown. The team would have some of the books on the wish list available at the Summer Fair and also at the next parents evening for parents to buy. The School had just spent most of the £4k allotted at the AGM on non-fiction and other non-traditional books. The Library team had asked for a small amount to be set aside to improve the library space with new shelves, large pin boards and more cushions.

Barbecue – as agreed at the last meeting the new BBQ had been purchased via the School and was stored in the container. No gas is being stored so new gas would need to be purchased for events. The Highgate Wood PSA had asked if it was possible to hire the BBQ. After the meeting Elizabeth reviewed the hire costs for the BBQs hired for last year’s Fair which were around £250 incl VAT including gas and delivery. On that basis a hire charge of £100 for another school would be a good saving for them and an adequate amount for us. Hire would need to be on the basis that all damage etc would need to be paid for by the hirer.

Drama / costumes/ storage area updates – the relevant workmen had been booked in by Susie for half term week to do the works on the costume rooms and the roof. This was costing around £2k more than had originally been budgeted but would make both rooms good. Leon reported that there were some changes being made to the use of the rooms in the East Side and one of the drama rooms may need to put over to other uses to create a training room. Once the rooms had been done and the one for costume storage had been identified storage racking for the room and also for the container would be bought. An architect parent, Mark P, had offered to help design the racking to optimise the space.

Sponsorship – EM is to meet Simon and Alastair from Martyn Gerrard to finalise the agreement for the 9 months to end August 2016 and to discuss what involvement MG are to have in the Fair. The meeting had been put off due to bereavement at MG.

Events update and class rep coordinators – forthcoming events this term included the Bounce (Y1), a cake sale (Y1, 4 & 5), Gig Night (Y6), Spring Dig (R), and the Fair (Y3). Planning was well underway for all of them. Amanda was intending to handover rep coordination responsibilities to Pete Salerno and Suz Cocksedge. We would also send out the letter seeking specific event coordinators to support the big events (Fairs, Bazaar, Quiz, etc) discussed after the last meeting as well when Pete and Sus took on the reins.

Bees – A request had been received for just under £200 for bee equipment. There was some discussion on whether enough children were getting access to the bees. Elizabeth agreed to raise the question with the TA who runs the bee club. It was agreed to provide the club with the funds they need.

Riverford Organics – a number of parents had mentioned the RO scheme which would give money to the school if a certain number of parents signed up to the service for a year. It was agreed that we would register and then see whether there was any catch. Leon mentioned that Rokesly ran a similar scheme with one of the other veg box suppliers.